At the Interlaken (2010) and Izmir (2011) Conferences, the member States of the Council of Europe, while recognising the extraordinary contribution of the Court to the protection of human rights in Europe, agreed unanimously that reform of the Court is needed in order to ensure the continuing effectiveness of the Convention system. The aim of the Brighton Conference is to agree on a package of concrete reforms to ensure that the Court can be most effective for all 800 million citizens of Council of Europe member States.
On 31 January 2012, some 152.200 cases were pending before the European Court of Human Rights. The explosive growth of litigation is due not only to the accession of new Council of Europe member states, but also to a massive inflow of individual applications from both old and new member states. This situation poses a serious threat to the effective functioning of the Court.
For more information about the reform process, consult the Council of Europe's webpage.
Click this LINK to see comments and proposals submitted by Norway 19 March 2012.